Sophomore guard Skylar Diggins is the only returning starter from Notre Dame's Sweet 16 matchup with Oklahoma last year, scoring 10 points in that game, including the game-tying three-pointer with 32 seconds left in regulation.

Notre Dame is one of just eight schools in the country to advance to the NCAA Sweet 16 nine times in the past 15 seasons.

The Fighting Irish are 16-4 (.800) all-time when playing in the city of Dayton.

No. 9/7 Irish Tangle With No. 21/20 Oklahoma Saturday In NCAA Sweet 16
Nearly one year to the day after they met in the same round of the NCAA Championship, No. 9/7 Notre Dame and No. 21/20 Oklahoma will do it all over again, as the second-seeded Fighting Irish and No. 6 seed Sooners square off in an NCAA Dayton Regional semifinal at 2:30 p.m. (ET) Saturday at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio on ESPNHD and ESPN3.com.

Notre Dame (28-7) earned its third Sweet 16 berth in four years (and ninth overall) with a near wire-to-wire 77-64 win over Atlantic 10 runner-up Temple Monday night in Salt Lake City.

Junior guard Natalie Novosel scored 17 points and senior forward Devereaux Peters chalked up a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds, as the Fighting Irish had five double-figure scorers in an NCAA tournament game for the first time since their 2001 Final Four win over Connecticut.

Rankings

Notre Dame was No. 9 in the final Associated Press poll and is No. 7 in the current ESPN/USA Today poll.

Oklahoma was No. 21 in the final Associated Press poll and is No. 20 in the current ESPN/USA Today poll.

Quick Hitters

With its No. 9 ranking in the final 2010-11 Associated Press poll, Notre Dame now has appeared in the AP poll for a school-record 77 consecutive weeks, extending the program standard that began with the 2007-08 preseason poll.

The Fighting Irish have posted a school-record nine wins this season by at least 35 points, topping the old program standard of four 35-point victories set in 2008-09.

Notre Dame has scored at least 90 points in eight games this season, surpassing the school record of seven set in three separate seasons (1996-97, 1998-99 and 2007-08).

Notre Dame has won 12 games by 30 points or more, eclipsing the school record of 10 30-point victories established in 2000-01.

The Fighting Irish are 5-7 against ranked opponents this season, with those seven losses (the only defeats for Notre Dame to date) coming by an average of just 7.6 points per game, and only one by more than 11 points. Four of those setbacks came to the nation's top two squads (76-65 at No. 2/3 Baylor on Dec. 1; 79-76 vs. No. 2 Connecticut on Jan. 8; 78-57 at No. 2 Connecticut on Feb. 19; 73-64 at No. 1 Connecticut on March 8), with the first UConn contest being one of four in which Notre Dame led or had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds of regulation (also 86-83 double-OT loss to No. 15 UCLA, a 81-76 loss at No. 9/10 Kentucky and a 70-69 loss at No. 12/11 DePaul).

The Fighting Irish rank among the top 15 in the country in eight statistical categories, according to Wednesday's NCAA statistics report. Notre Dame ranks third in the nation in steals (13.0), fourth in field goal percentage (.480), sixth in scoring margin (+22.0), ninth in assists (17.4) and rebound margin (+8.6), 11th in scoring offense (77.5) and 15th in turnover margin (+4.97) and three-point defense (.272). These rankings are ironic for a Fighting Irish team that has just one player ranking higher than 50th in any category.

Notre Dame became the 32nd NCAA Division I program to record 700 wins, earning the landmark victory (91-47) vs. Loyola Marymount on Dec. 30 at the State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic in Seattle. The Fighting Irish are 717-309 (.699) over 34 seasons.

Notre Dame celebrated another program milestone on Dec. 5 with its 1,000th all-time game (a 72-51 win over Purdue at Purcell Pavilion).

Part of Notre Dame's success thus far can be traced to the improvement in two of its veterans, both of whom have exceeded their scoring outputs from last season by at least 50 percent. Junior guard Natalie Novosel (5.0 to 14.9) and senior forward Devereaux Peters (6.7 to 11.8) also are currently logging career-high scoring averages this year.

Other Notre Dame Notables

Notre Dame is among the nation's winningest programs during the past 15 seasons (1996-97 to present), ranking fifth with 371 victories.

Notre Dame has ranked among the top 20 in the nation in attendance each of the past 10 seasons. This year, the program is fifth in the NCAA attendance rankings with a school-record 8,553 fans per game, topping last year's mark of 8,377. The Fighting Irish also have drawn 5,000-or-more fans to 158 of their last 160 home games, logging 17 Purcell Pavilion sellouts (most recently on Feb. 26 vs. Cincinnati).

The Fighting Irish have become a regular fixture in the WNBA Draft in recent years, as seven Notre Dame players have been selected in the past decade. Charel Allen was the most recent Fighting Irish player to be chosen, going to the Sacramento Monarchs in the third round (43rd overall pick) of the 2008 WNBA Draft. Ruth Riley (San Antonio) was active in the league during the '10 season, helping the Silver Stars return to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season. Three of Notre Dame's eight WNBA alums have won a total of four league championships -- Riley won a pair of crowns with the Detroit Shock (2003 Finals MVP, 2006), Coquese Washington toiled for the 2000 Houston Comets, while Jacqueline Batteast was Riley's teammate on the 2006 title-winning squad in Detroit.

For the fifth year in a row, the Fighting Irish posted a perfect 100-percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR), according to figures released by the NCAA in October. What's more, since Muffet McGraw became head coach in 1987, every Notre Dame women's basketball player who has completed her athletic and academic eligibility at the University has earned her bachelor's degree (a 62-for-62 success rate), with all four members of this year's senior class on target to earn their diplomas.

A Quick Look At Oklahoma
The names may change, but the results remain the same for Oklahoma, as the Sooners (23-11) have returned to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the ninth time overall, and the fifth time in six years.

Robinson, one of the nation's top point guards, leads Oklahoma in scoring (18.4 ppg.), assists (5.1 apg.), steals (2.5 spg.) and free throw percentage (.876). Freshman guard Aaryn Ellenberg is second in scoring (16.4 ppg.) and three-point percentage (.399), while Hand is third in scoring (12.9 ppg.) and second in rebounding (5.5 rpg.) despite getting a late start to her season while coming back from knee surgery.

Head coach Sherri Coale is in her 15th season at Oklahoma with a 336-154 (.686) record at the school, including a 1-2 record against Notre Dame.

The Notre Dame-Oklahoma Series
Saturday's game will mark the fifth time Notre Dame and Oklahoma have met on the hardwood, and the fourth time in the past four years. The teams have split the previous four matchups, all of which took place at neutral sites (like this weekend's encounter), as well as their prior two games in the NCAA Championship, both of which went to overtime (ND 79-75 in 2008 second round; OU 77-72 in 2010 regional semifinal).

The Last Time Notre Dame And Oklahoma Met
Nyeshia Stevenson hit a three-pointer from the corner with 4.4 seconds left in overtime and third-seeded Oklahoma knocked off second-seeded Notre Dame 77-72 on March 28, 2010, in an NCAA Kansas City Regional semifinal at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.

Stevenson had 21 points and Abi Olajuwon added 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Sooners, who lost to Notre Dame in overtime in the second round in 2008.

Oklahoma muffed a chance to win at the end of regulation, as Danielle Robinson slipped 30 feet from the basket. But in OT, Stevenson calmly drilled a three from the corner that proved to be the winner.

Notre Dame then chucked a long baseball pass, but Stevenson snagged it and knocked down two free throws to seal the win.

The first four games in the series have been decided by 10 points or fewer, with two going to overtime, and a third decided by three points.

The two OT games between Notre Dame and Oklahoma represent two-thirds of the overtime games the Fighting Irish have played in the NCAA Championship, having also gone an extra session with Missouri State in 2004.

For the second consecutive season, Notre Dame will have faced three-fourths of the previous year's NCAA Women's Final Four, adding Saturday's game against Oklahoma, with a December visit to Baylor and three tussles with BIG EAST Conference rival and two-time defending national champion Connecticut. The Fighting Irish are 0-4 this year against the 2010 Final Four clubs, with three losses to UConn and one at Baylor.

Fighting Irish head coach Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame associate coach Carol Owens and Oklahoma head coach Sherri Coale all serve together on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Board of Directors; Coale is the group's past president, while McGraw has served as the body's Division I Legislative Chair for several years and Owens is the WBCA secretary.

Notre Dame vs. The Big 12 Conference
Notre Dame is 8-11 (.421) all-time against current Big 12 Conference members, including wins in six of its last 10 games against that conference. The four losses in that time all came by 11 points or less (three by five or fewer and two in OT):

2010-11 regular season at Baylor (L, 76-65 ... margin was six points with five minutes left; BU one FG over final 8:23).

Notre Dame also will be playing a Big 12 opponent for the 11th time since that conference was founded in 1996-97. However, in an odd coincidence, nine of the previous 10 games were played in a tournament format, including six in NCAA Championship play (shown in boldface):

Notre Dame is playing an NCAA Championship regional semifinal in Dayton for the second time, having also advanced there in 2003. That season, the Fighting Irish dropped a 66-47 decision to Purdue in the East Regional semifinals, also at UD Arena.

Notre Dame is 16-4 (.800) all-time in Dayton, having visited the city regularly when the Fighting Irish and University of Dayton were members of both the North Star and the Midwestern Collegiate conferences (the latter now known as the Horizon League). Notre Dame last played in Dayton (and at UD Arena) on Dec. 9, 2004, earning a 65-39 win over the host Flyers (the most recent of 14 games between the schools in the city).

Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw and Ohio State head coach Jim Foster maintain a special relationship, born out of McGraw's tenure as an assistant coach on Foster's staff at McGraw's alma mater, Saint Joseph's (Pa.), from 1980-82. The pair and their families have remained close for more than three decades.

This isn't the first time McGraw and Foster have ended up in the same NCAA regional setting. In 2001, McGraw's Fighting Irish wound up playing Foster's Vanderbilt squad in the Midwest Regional final at the Pepsi Center in Denver, with Notre Dame earning a 72-64 victory to book its second trip to the Women's Final Four (and ultimately the program's first national championship).

Although no current Notre Dame players hail from the state of Ohio, the Fighting Irish have had nine Ohio natives on their roster in the program's 34-year history, the fourth-highest total from one state behind Indiana (19), Michigan (16) and Illinois (12). One of the most notable Ohio residents to play for Notre Dame was Dayton native Megan Duffy, who was a point guard for the Fighting Irish from 2002-06, twice earning State Farm/WBCA honorable mention All-America status as well as the 2006 Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award (top senior 5-foot-8 and under).

Irish In The NCAA Championship
Notre Dame is making its 18th appearance in the NCAA Championship, and 16th in a row, as it takes the University of Dayton Arena court Saturday for its Dayton Regional semifinal against Oklahoma. The Fighting Irish have a .644 winning percentage (29-16) in NCAA tournament play, ranking 12th all-time in that category (minimum of 20 games played).

In addition, Notre Dame's current streak of 16 consecutive NCAA Championship appearances ranks sixth in the record books.

Here are some other facts about the Fighting Irish in the "Big Dance" (see pp. 172-188 in this year's media guide for box scores, results and records):

Each of Notre Dame's 18 NCAA tournament appearances have come during the tenure of 24th-year head coach Muffet McGraw.

Following their March 19 win at Utah, the Fighting Irish now have won their NCAA tournament opener in 14 of the past 16 seasons, dating back to the start of their membership in the BIG EAST Conference (1995-96 to present).

Notre Dame is one of eight schools in the country to have advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 nine times in the past 15 years (1997-2010).

Notre Dame is one of 12 schools to make multiple trips to the NCAA Women's Final Four and come away with at least one national championship, going to the semifinals in 1997 and winning it all in 2001.

Sowing The Seeds
For the second consecutive season, Notre Dame has earned a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Championship. It's also the third time in 18 NCAA tournament appearances that the Fighting Irish have been seeded second, with Notre Dame holding a 6-2 (.750) record on that line of the bracket.

This year's seed was the highest for the Fighting Irish when they did not open the tournament at home. Prior to 2011, Notre Dame's highest seed when opening away from Purcell Pavilion was a No. 4 seed in 2005, when they also came west, playing in Fresno, Calif.

In 2000, the No. 2-seeded Fighting Irish opened the tournament with victories at Purcell Pavilion over 15th-seeded San Diego (87-61) and No. 7 seed George Washington (95-60), before bowing to third-seeded Texas Tech (69-65) in the Mideast Regional semifinals at The Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn.

Last year, Notre Dame used its No. 2 seed to post home victories over 15th-seeded Cleveland State (86-58) and No. 10 seed Vermont (84-66) before falling to third-seeded Oklahoma (77-72 in OT) in the Kansas City Regional semifinals at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Notre Dame has been awarded a top-eight seed for the 12th time in its 18 NCAA Championship visits (and a top-four seed for the fifth time). The Fighting Irish are 18-5 (.783) all-time as the higher seed in NCAA tournament play.

It Hinges On Defense
Notre Dame's success in the NCAA Championship can be directly traced to its performance at the defensive end of the floor. In its 18 NCAA tournament trips (45 games), the Fighting Irish are 16-2 (.889) when holding their opponent to 60 points or fewer. The two losses both came at the hands of top-seeded clubs -- Penn State (55-49) in the 2004 East Regional semifinals, and North Carolina (60-51) in the second round of the 2007 Dallas Region.

Re-Stoking The Offensive Fires
Prior to the 2008 NCAA Championship, Notre Dame had gone 13 consecutive games without scoring more than 61 points in a regulation NCAA tournament contest, dating back to its 2001 national championship game win over Purdue (68-66 in St. Louis).

However, that 2008 tournament saw the Fighting Irish offense roar to life, as Notre Dame topped the 70-point mark in its first two games (75-62 over SMU and 79-75 in overtime over Oklahoma) before a hard-fought 74-64 loss to Tennessee at the regional semifinals at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.

The back-to-back 70-point outings were the first for the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Championship since their Midwest Regional final and Final Four games in 2001, as they downed Vanderbilt (72-64) and Connecticut (90-75), respectively.

Notre Dame now has topped the 70-point mark in seven of its last nine NCAA tournament games, with last year's 86-58 first-round win at home over Cleveland State representing the highest point production by the Fighting Irish in the NCAA Championship since that 2001 NCAA national semifinal win over Connecticut in St. Louis.

Bonus Basketball
Notre Dame is 2-1 all-time when going to overtime in the NCAA tournament, following its 2010 regional semifinal loss to Oklahoma (77-72 in Kansas City). The Fighting Irish had previously beaten the Sooners in OT in the NCAA tournament (79-75 in a 2008 second-round game at West Lafayete, Ind.), and also defeated Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), 69-65, in extra time in their 2004 NCAA opener.

Notre Dame is 16-17 (.485) all-time when going to overtime, having split its last eight OT contests. This season, the Fighting Irish dropped their lone overtime game, an 86-83 double-OT thriller to No. 15 UCLA on Nov. 18 at Purcell Pavilion.

Double Deuce
No, the title of this note doesn't haven't anything to do with the notorious tavern from Patrick Swayze's 1989 movie "Road House", but rather it's all about Notre Dame basketball.

For the first time in school history, both Fighting Irish hoops teams garnered No. 2 seeds for their respective NCAA Championships. Mike Brey's crew (27-7) advanced to the second round of the NCAA Southwest Region before falling to Florida State, 71-57 in Chicago.

Notre Dame is one of only two schools in the country to have both of its basketball teams seeded No. 2 or better in both the men's and women's tournaments (Duke's men earned a No. 1 seed, while the Blue Devil women are seeded second in the Philadelphia Region).

The NCAA tournament seeds are just the latest highlight in a historic season for Fighting Irish basketball. The 2010-11 campaign marks the first time ever that both Notre Dame teams have recorded at least 27 wins in the same season (each squad had 25 victories in 2007-08). This year's clubs also have set a new school record for combined men's/women's basketball victories in a single season with 55, topping the old mark of 54 set in 2000-01 (women 34-2; men 20-10).

One added note -- with the Fighting Irish hockey team also earning a berth in this year's NCAA Championship (they face Merrimack in a Northeast Regional semifinal Saturday night in Manchester, N.H.), Notre Dame is the only school to have all three major winter sports qualify for NCAA postseason play.

A BIG EAST Bonanza
Notre Dame is one of a record-setting nine BIG EAST Conference schools that earned invitations to the 2011 NCAA Championship, joining a club that also includes seven-time national champion Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Marquette, Rutgers, St. John's and West Virginia.

This year's nine selections are one better than the previous conference (and NCAA Championship) record for the highest number of teams from one league invited to a single NCAA tournament. The BIG EAST (2004, 2008) and SEC (1999, 2002) hit that mark twice, while the Big 12 reached that total for the first time in 2008.

Besides Notre Dame, four other BIG EAST schools have advanced to the Sweet 16 this weekend, with Connecticut, DePaul and Georgetown all headed to the Philadelphia Regional semifinals, while Louisville punched its ticket for the Spokane Regional semifinals. It's the second time the BIG EAST has had five Sweet 16 participants, having first done so in 2007-08 (Notre Dame, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Rutgers).

Don't Mess With Tradition
The Notre Dame women's basketball program has developed some traditions that should be quite evident during this week's NCAA regional in Dayton.

Green nails -- each of the Fighting Irish players and female coaches wear green nail polish throughout the NCAA Championship. This tradition started during the 1997 tourney, when the Fighting Irish added the green polish to their fingers prior to their second-round St. Patrick's Day game at Texas, which Notre Dame won 86-83. The Fighting Irish ended up going to their first NCAA Final Four that season and the green nail polish was here to stay. As a show of solidarity, the male members of the travel party usually paint their left pinky green, and some (including associate head coach Jonathan Tsipis) have even gone so far as to shave their heads for the tournament.

Green uniforms -- though not limited exclusively to NCAA tournament play, Notre Dame's distinctive kelly green road uniforms have become a staple of the postseason in keeping with the St. Patrick's Day holiday, which often falls during the early rounds of the tournament (or in this year's case, during the week leading up to the preliminary rounds). The Fighting Irish last wore the alternate green road threads in the NCAA Championship for their 2008 second-round and regional semifinal games, splitting games with Oklahoma (W, 79-75 OT) and Tennessee (L, 64-74) -- Notre Dame is 6-7 (.462) all-time in the NCAA tournament when featuring the "wearing o' the green." The Fighting Irish also have broken out their alternate home whites with green trim for early-round games the past four seasons (2008 - a 75-62 win over SMU in West Lafayette, Ind.; 2009 - a 79-71 home loss to Minnesota; 2010 - an 86-58 home win over Cleveland State and 84-66 home win over Vermont; 2011 - a 67-54 win at Utah and 77-64 win over Temple in Salt Lake City), the first time those uniforms have been worn in NCAA tournament play.

Irish jig -- this unique pre-game ritual has become one of the widely-recognized traditions of Notre Dame women's basketball. Just prior to the introduction of the starting lineups, the Fighting Irish players will circle up in the lane with a basketball at their feet. As the Notre Dame pep band plays, the team will perform the Irish Jig (a popular step with Notre Dame fans, especially the student body) with the ball bouncing around in the midst of their dance. This tradition is believed to have started during the 1999-2000 season, but picked up steam during Notre Dame's 2000-01 national championship run and has been part of the Fighting Irish pre-game ritual ever since.

Pieces of Silver
With its 63-53 win over Louisville in the BIG EAST Championship quarterfinals on March 6 in Hartford, Conn., Notre Dame registered its 25th victory of the season, marking the second consecutive year (and third time in four years) the Fighting Irish have reached that level.

Notre Dame has recorded eight 25-win seasons in its 34 varsity campaigns, but only once before had the Fighting Irish done so in back-to-back years. From 1998-99 through 2000-01, Notre Dame topped that mark each season (26-5, 27-5 and 34-2), including a school-record 34 wins in the final year of that run, which culminated with the program's first national championship.

Twenty Questions
Notre Dame reached the 20-win mark for the 17th time in the past 18 seasons with its 76-68 victory at South Florida on Feb. 5. The Fighting Irish now have registered 20-or-more wins 21 times in the 24-year Muffet McGraw era and 25 times in the program's 34-year history.

McGraw herself has coached 23 20-win seasons (adding in two during her five-year tenure at Lehigh from 1982-87), tying her for ninth all-time among NCAA Division I coaches.

Conference Call
For the 15th time in its 16-year membership in the BIG EAST Conference, Notre Dame posted double-digit league wins. With the exception of 2005-06 (when they went 8-8), the Fighting Irish have never posted fewer than 10 BIG EAST wins in a season, finishing among the top four in the conference 13 times in their 16 seasons in the league, including this year.

In addition, Notre Dame collected 13 conference wins this season, the most for the Fighting Irish in a BIG EAST campaign since 2004-05, when they also went 13-3.

Taking it a step further, Notre Dame has registered double-digit conference wins in 21 of head coach Muffet McGraw's 24 seasons under the Golden Dome, with the only other exceptions coming in 1987-88 (her first season when the Fighting Irish went 7-3 in the now-defunct North Star Conference) and 1991-92 (when Notre Dame went 8-4 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference/Horizon League, then won three in a row at the conference tournament to earn the program's first-ever NCAA Championship berth, despite a losing overall record of 14-16, becoming the first school ever to pull off that feat).

Celebrating The Bicentennial
With its 72-60 win at No. 19/18 West Virginia on Feb. 22, Notre Dame became just the third BIG EAST Conference school to record 200 regular season league wins, joining Connecticut (379) and Villanova (251) in that elite company. The Fighting Irish now have a 201-63 (.761) all-time record in BIG EAST Conference regular season play

What makes Notre Dame's feat even more impressive is the fact the Fighting Irish have reached their bicentennial in only 16 seasons (1995-96 to present), while both Connecticut and Villanova were charter members of the BIG EAST when it debuted women's basketball competition in 1982-83 -- 13 seasons before Notre Dame came aboard. Another charter member (Providence) is fourth all-time with 197 BIG EAST victories.

The Fighting Irish also rank second in conference history with a .761 winning percentage, trailing only Connecticut (.819) and joining the Huskies and Rutgers as the only programs in BIG EAST history (current or former) to have won at least 70 percent of their conference games (Rutgers is third at .701).

Century City
The current Notre Dame senior class (Becca Bruszewski, Mary Forr, Brittany Mallory, Devereaux Peters) reached a collective career milestone with a 66-48 Senior Day win over Cincinnati on Feb. 26 at Purcell Pavilion. With that victory, the group has led the Fighting Irish to a 104-31 (.770) record since they arrived on campus in 2007-08.

Only five other senior classes in program history have registered 100 wins in their four-year tenures, led by the 2000-01 national championship seniors (Imani Dunbar, Meaghan Leahy, Niele Ivey, Ruth Riley and Kelley Siemon), who amassed 109 victories from 1997-2001 (Ivey was a fifth-year senior in '00-01, following a knee injury five games into her rookie season of '96-97).

This year's seniors also are the fifth group to help Notre Dame reach the NCAA Sweet 16 three times, joining the senior classes of 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03 and 2003-04.

It should be noted that Forr joined the Fighting Irish roster as a walk-on prior to this season, while both Mallory and Peters have the option to return for a fifth year of eligibility next season after both suffered knee injuries early in the 2008-09 campaign.

The Rare Air Up There
Beginning on Jan. 31 (and the first time since Dec. 9, 2002), both Notre Dame basketball teams have been ranked in the top 10 of their respective Associated Press polls. In the final 2010-11 polls released on March 14, the Fighting Irish women were ranked ninth, while Mike Brey's men checked in at No. 5.

Notre Dame is one of only three schools in the country with two top-10 basketball programs, along with Connecticut (No. 1 women/No. 9 men) and Duke (No. 6 women/No. 3 men).

If you want to go one further, this marks the first time in Notre Dame athletics history that both Fighting Irish basketball teams AND the Notre Dame hockey team are ranked in the top 10 at the same time (the Fighting Irish icers currently stand ninth in the nation).

The Five-Finger Discount
Notre Dame comes into Saturday's game ranked third in the nation in steals with 13.0 thefts per game (as of March 23). The Fighting Irish also have recorded double-digit steals in 24 games this season, including four contests with 20-plus steals.

Highlighting this year's takeaway brigade for Notre Dame was a school-record 36-steal performance in the season-opening victory against New Hampshire on Nov. 12 at Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish followed that up three days later with 26 thefts in a win over Morehead State, and also logged 24 steals at Valparaiso (Dec. 2) and 23 steals against IUPUI (Nov. 26).

Prior to this season, Notre Dame had posted 23 steals in a game just seven times in the first 33 years of the Fighting Irish women's basketball program (and only three games with 25-plus steals in that time, none since a then-record tying 29 steals at Saint Louis on Jan. 31, 1991).

Individually, Notre Dame has 11 different players with double-digit steals this season, including a school-record four with at least 60 thefts. The Fighting Irish are led by senior guard Brittany Mallory, who has collected a career-high 2.1 steals per game (eighth in the BIG EAST).

Right Said Fred
Junior guard Fraderica Miller often has been termed the "defensive spark" off the bench for Notre Dame, and the numbers bear it out. The Atlanta native is uber-efficient with her playing time (9.5 min/game), ranking fifth on the team this season with a career-high 46 steals.

Were she to play a full 40 minutes, she would easily lead the nation in steals with 6.67/game, nearly a full steal ahead of her next closest competitor.

Helping Hands
Notre Dame also enters Saturday's game ranked ninth in the country in assists (17.4 apg.), having dished out at least 20 assists in 14 games this season.

Further illustrating the Fighting Irish giving spirit, Notre Dame has assisted on 61.1 percent of its baskets this season, with 608 assists on 995 field goals.

At the head of the Fighting Irish assist company is sophomore Skylar Diggins, who has adapted well to her role as Notre Dame's primary point guard, ranking fifth in the BIG EAST Conference at 4.6 assists per game, and just outside the top 15 in the league with a 1.20 assist/turnover ratio. She also has handed out at least five assists in 20 games this season, after tallying seven five-assist games during her entire freshman campaign.

Sharp Shooters
Notre Dame also ranks fourth in the nation with a .480 field goal percentage, shooting 50 percent or better from the floor in 17 games this season, and at least 45 percent in 26 outings.

Notre Dame also has seen a rise in its three-point shooting numbers following a slow start this season. During the past 26 games, the Fighting Irish are connecting at a 39.1 percent clip (90-of-230) from beyond the arc. Compare that with the first nine contests of the season, when Notre Dame had a .269 (29-of-108) three-point percentage.

National Leaders
Notre Dame ranks among the top 15 in the nation in eight categories according to Wednesday's NCAA statistics report -- third in steals (13.0 spg.); fourth in field goal percentage (.480); sixth in scoring margin (+22.0 ppg.); ninth in assists (17.4 apg.) and rebounding margin (+8.6 rpg.); 11th in scoring offense (77.5 ppg.); and 15th in turnover margin (+4.97) and three-point percentage defense (.272).

Yet for all of these high team statistical marks, only one Fighting Irish individual is ranked higher than No. 50 in any single category -- senior forward Devereaux Peters is seventh in the nation in field goal percentage (.587).

High Octane Offense
Behind one of the nation's top 15 scoring offenses (77.5 ppg., 11th as of Wednesday), Notre Dame is moving into uncharted territory in the school's record books.

The Fighting Irish have scored 90 points in a game in eight contests this season, setting a new school record for 90-point games in a season (the previous mark was seven on three occasions - 1996-97, 1998-99 and 2007-08).

Notre Dame also has set a new school record with nine wins by at least 35 points, more than doubling the previous program record of four 35-point wins set in 2008-09.

What's more, the Fighting Irish have won 12 games by at least 30 points, topping the school record of 10 30-point victories, which was set during the program's 2000-01 national championship season.

Last year, Notre Dame averaged 77.2 points per game, the fifth-highest single-season scoring average in school history, and best since the Fighting Irish logged a school-record 81.0 ppg. mark in 1998-99.

Two Of A Kind
Junior guard Natalie Novosel (520 points) and sophomore guard Skylar Diggins (504 points) both have topped the 500-point mark this season. It's just the third time in school history -- and the first in 15 years -- that Notre Dame has had two 500-point scorers in the same season.

In both 1995-96 and 1996-97, All-Americans Beth Morgan and Katryna Gaither pulled off this feat -- Morgan had 626 points and Gaither had 613 in 1995 96. A year later, Gaither took the lead with a school-record 776 points, followed by Morgan with 696 points.

Glass Houses
One of Notre Dame's greatest areas of improvement this season has been in the rebounding column, where the Fighting Irish are averaging 40.9 caroms per game, up more than two rebounds from last year's total at this time (38.6 rpg.) and good enough for third in the BIG EAST.

Notre Dame also is giving up just 32.3 rebounds per game, more than three caroms better than last year at this time (35.8 rpg.), also placing third in the conference.

With a +8.6 rpg. margin this season, the Fighting Irish rank third in the BIG EAST and ninth in the country as of Wednesday. Notre Dame has won or tied the battle on the boards in 30 of 35 games this year (including 23 of its last 25), and has not has a negative rebounding margin of more than seven all season (at Utah on March 19).

What's more, Notre Dame has outrebounded its opponent by double digits in 15 games this season, including eight games in which the Fighting Irish posted rebound margins of +15 or better, topped by a season-high +42 mark (66-24) on Jan. 2 against Southeast Missouri State at Purcell Pavilion.

Everyone Gets Into The Act
The Fighting Irish have spread the wealth so far this season, with six different players leading the team in scoring in at least one game thus far, with four different 20-point scorers along the way.

Notre Dame also has seen no fewer than eight different players claim team-high rebounding and assist honors at some point this year.

Missed It By That Much
Notre Dame may hold a 28-7 record coming into Saturday's game, but the Fighting Irish are oh-so-close to owning a much better mark, with all seven losses coming to top-15 opponents by an average margin of just 7.6 points per game -- five by single digits (four by five points or fewer), and a sixth by 11 points.

What's more, Notre Dame led inside the final 30 seconds of regulation in three of those losses (No. 15 UCLA, also at the end of the first overtime; No. 2 Connecticut; No. 12/11 DePaul), and the Fighting Irish also had a possession to tie the game in the final 30 seconds at No. 9/10 Kentucky.

The 76-65 loss at No. 2/3 Baylor on Dec. 1 saw Notre Dame battle to within six points (65-59) with five minutes remaining and have a look at a three-pointer to halve the margin further on their next possession, but the shot rattled out and the Lady Bears managed to put the game away with nine free throws (despite making only one field goal during the final 8:23).

The South Bend native also is tied with junior teammate Natalie Novosel for the team lead with 29 double-figure scoring games this season, including seven 20-point outings, and she has stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of a team-best eight "5-5-5" outings (at least "5" in three of the five major statistical categories, or a mini triple-double).

Diggins has been tapped as a prime candidate for all of the major national player-of-the-year awards, including a spot on the final ballot for this year's John R. Wooden Award, as well as a semifinalist berth for the Nancy Lieberman Award, given to the nation's top point guard.

In addition, Diggins was a unanimous first-team all-BIG EAST selection, one of three Fighting Irish players (along with Novosel and senior forward Devereaux Peters) to make the WBCA All-Region I Team, and she made her second consecutive appearance on the BIG EAST Championship All-Tournament Team, just the fourth Notre Dame player to make that squad twice (along with multi-time All-Americans Beth Morgan, Katryna Gaither and Ruth Riley).

Diggins also is closing in on an extremely rare accomplishment, as she has 988 career points through 70 games. That leaves her within striking distance of becoming just the second Fighting Irish player ever to reach the 1,000-point mark in her first two seasons at Notre Dame -- Morgan (the program's all-time leading scorer) had exactly 1,000 points from 1993-95.

Novosel Is Just Plain Nasty
Nicknamed "Nasty" for her playmaking abilities, junior guard Natalie Novosel emerged as easily the most improved player in the BIG EAST Conference, if not the entire country.

The Lexington, Ky., native currently leads the Fighting Irish (and ranks seventh in the league) in scoring at a team-high 14.9 points per game, nearly tripling her offensive output from a season ago. She also has scored at least 20 points in a game six times this year (after coming into the campaign with a career single-game high of 19 points) and has scored in double figures a team-high 29 times after doing so a total of 14 times in her first two seasons combined at Notre Dame.

In addition to collecting the BIG EAST Most Improved Player award (the third by a Notre Dame player and first since Megan Duffy in 2005), Novosel added other hardware to her personal trophy case as well, taking home first-team all-BIG EAST and WBCA All-Region I Team honors, as well as Most Valuable Player plaudits at the WBCA Classic. She also earned a spot on the BIG EAST Championship and State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic all-tournament teams, and garnered three mentions on the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll (Nov. 29, Feb. 7, March 1).

"Is Natalie Novosel the most improved player in the nation? Gotta be on the short list."

Peters Showing Her Own Dev-elopment
If Novosel is among the nation's most improved players, senior forward Devereaux Peters can't be far behind. The veteran frontliner is playing some of the best basketball of her career this season, putting a pair of knee injuries and three surgeries well in the rearview mirror.

Peters currently is averaging career highs of 11.8 points per game (24th in the BIG EAST) and 7.3 rebounds per game (sixth), along with a .587 field goal percentage (second; seventh in nation as of Wednesday), 1.8 blocks per game (fourth) and 1.8 steals per game.

Peters' numbers in BIG EAST play were even more eye-popping, as she ranked among the top five in the league in field goal percentage (first - .621), rebounding (second - 7.9 rpg.) and blocks (third - 1.9 bpg.), while ranking 15th in scoring (12.9 ppg.). She also placed second in the BIG EAST with five double-doubles during conference action.

Like Novosel, Peters regularly has been pulling in accolades this season, most notably being named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year (the first Fighting Irish cager to earn that award since Ruth Riley's three-year run from 1999-2001). Peters also was a first-team all-BIG EAST and WBCA All-Region I selection, while earning a spot on the WBCA Classic All-Tournament Team and garnering MVP honors at the State Farm Holiday Hoops Classic in Seattle. During the latter tournament on Dec. 29-30, she averaged 13.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2.5 blocks per game with a .684 field goal percentage (13-of-19) in wins over Gonzaga and Loyola Marymount.

That tournament effort has been the cornerstone of Peters' post-Christmas surge. In the past 23 games, the Chicago native is averaging 13.1 points and 8.4 rebounds with eight double-doubles and a .607 field goal percentage (130-of-214).

Peters Adds Griner To SWAT Team
Senior forward Devereaux Peters has made a living as a shot blocking presence in the paint for Notre Dame throughout her career, with her 6-foot-2 frame and 77-inch wingspan. However, on Dec. 1 at No. 2/3 Baylor, she added another notch to her belt in historic fashion.

At the 10:22 mark of the second half, the Lady Bears threw an entry pass in to their 6-foot-8 sophomore All-America center Brittney Griner, but as she turned to shoot, Peters rotated perfectly from the weak side and rejected Griner's shot out of bounds. It was one of the highlights in a 17-2 Fighting Irish run that pulled Notre Dame within six points of Baylor with five minutes left.

It's believed to be the first time in Griner's two-year college career that she has had a shot blocked. A video clip of Peters' block has been posted on the Notre Dame Women's Basketball YouTube channel (search for "notredameirishhoops" or click the link through the sidebar on the women's basketball page at www.UND.com).

Bruszewski Joins 1,000-Point Club
With 12 points vs. Syracuse on Feb. 1, senior forward/co-captain Becca Bruszewski became the 27th Notre Dame women's basketball player to score 1,000 points in her career. She currently ranked 22nd on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,123 points.

Five other teams in Fighting Irish women's basketball history have featured at least five current or future 1,000-point scorers on the same roster -- from 1995-96 through 1999-2000, every Notre Dame squad had five or more players who had reached or would reach the 1,000-point plateau during their careers (including a school-record six on the 1996-97 and 1997-98 squads).

Aside from head coach Muffet McGraw and current associate coach Carol Owens, the one common link between those teams was guard Danielle Green, who scored 1,106 points from 1995-2000, missing the 1996-97 Final Four season with a preseason Achilles injury and coming back for a fifth year of eligibility in 1999-2000.

Polling Station
Notre Dame were ranked No. 9 in the final 2010-11 Associated Press poll, its eighth consecutive week in the top 10. That marked the 77th consecutive AP poll appearance for the Fighting Irish, extending the program record that started with the AP preseason poll in 2007-08 (the old record was 59 consecutive weeks from 1998-2001).

With its current poll position, Notre Dame now has appeared in the top 10 of the AP poll in each of the past four seasons and 11 of the past 15 seasons (1996-97 to present), as well as 103 weeks overall since the Fighting Irish earned their initial AP top-10 ranking (No. 9 on Nov. 24, 1996).

This year's No. 9 year-end ranking also represents the fifth time (and the second consecutive year) that Notre Dame has appeared in the top 10 of the final AP poll. The Fighting Irish were second in 2000-01, fifth in 1999-2000, seventh in 2009-10 and eighth in 1998-99).

Notre Dame has been ranked in the AP poll for 216 weeks during the program's 34-year history, with every one of those appearances coming in the Muffet McGraw era (since 1987-88). McGraw ranks 13th among all active NCAA Division I head coaches for weeks in the AP poll, and also is 22nd all-time in that category.

In addition, the Fighting Irish are ranked No. 7 in the March 14 ESPN/USA Today/WBCA coaches' poll, matching their season-best position for the third time in four weeks. Notre Dame has been ranked in the coaches' poll for 77 of the past 78 weeks, falling just outside the Top 25 in the final poll of the 2008-09 season. Nevertheless, the Fighting Irish have appeared in the coaches' poll for a total of 208 weeks during their history (all coming during McGraw's tenure).

This marks the third consecutive season Notre Dame has been ranked in the top 10 of the ESPN/USA Today/WBCA poll, as well as nine of the past 13 campaigns (1998-99 to present).

More Polling Data
Notre Dame head coach Muffet McGraw is one of 30 people in NCAA Division I women's basketball history who have both played for and coached a team that has appeared in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Besides her 216 AP poll appearances while coaching at Notre Dame, McGraw was the starting point guard at Saint Joseph's (Pa.) as a senior in 1977, helping the Hawks to No. 3 in the nation.

Of the 30 people on this list, 16 currently are NCAA Division I head coaches (see accompanying chart on this page), with nine of the 16 leading their teams to this year's NCAA Championship. McGraw and Baylor's Kim Mulkey are the only active skippers to play for and coach a team in the AP poll, and coach that team to a national title (McGraw in 2001, Mulkey in 2005).

Half And Half
During the past decade, Notre Dame has been nearly unbeatable when it has the lead at halftime. The Fighting Irish are 214-17 (.926) since the start of the 2000-01 campaign when they go into the dressing room with the lead, including wins in 142 of their last 153 such contests, and 51 in a row since a 58-47 loss to Villanova on March 8, 2009, in the BIG EAST Championship quarterfinals at Hartford's XL Center (Notre Dame led 25-21 at intermission).

The Fighting Irish have been up at the break in 26 games this year, including their March 21 win over Temple in their NCAA Championship second round game, when they led 41-29 through the first 20 minutes.

The Best Offense Is A Good Defense...
During the past 16 seasons, Notre Dame has discovered that a solid defensive effort can almost certainly guarantee a victory. In fact, since the beginning of the 1995-96 season (Notre Dame's first in the BIG EAST Conference), the Fighting Irish have an amazing 229-15 (.939) record when they hold their opponents below 60 points in a game, including victories in 21 contests this season (New Hampshire, Morehead State, IUPUI, Butler, Purdue, Providence, Creighton, Valparaiso, Loyola Marymount, Southeast Missouri State, Marquette, Pittsburgh, Georgetown, St. John's, Villanova, Syracuse, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, Utah).

...But Sometimes You Have To Score If You Want To Win
Not resting solely on its defensive laurels, Notre Dame also seemingly has found the magic mark when it comes to outscoring its opponents. During the past 16 seasons (since 1995-96), the Fighting Irish are 153-5 (.968) when they score at least 80 points in a game. The only blemishes on that record are three overtime losses to Texas A&M (88-84) and Michigan State (87-83) in 1995 and UCLA (86-83 in double OT) in 2010, as well as a 106-81 loss to Connecticut in 1998, and an 81-80 loss to DePaul in 2008.

Notre Dame has topped the 80-point mark in 14 games this year (13-1 record) after going 17-0 last season when it scored at least 80 points.

Irish Are The Hottest Ticket In Town
The 2009-10 season saw an unprecedented surge in fan support for Notre Dame women's basketball, as the Fighting Irish set new program records for the highest year-end NCAA attendance ranking (fourth), highest average attendance (8,377 fans per game) and most sellouts (six) in a single season. And, as the old saying goes -- "you ain't seen nothin' yet."

For the second consecutive preseason, Notre Dame fans all but exhausted the program's season ticket packages (close to 7,500) and snapped up single-game ducats at a rate that helped the Fighting Irish make short work of their freshly-minted single-season average attendance record in 2010-11.

For the second consecutive year, Notre Dame set a new single-season attendance record, averaging 8,553 fans for its 17 home games this season (fifth in the country according to this week's NCAA attendance report), including sellout crowds of 9,149 for its games against Purdue (Dec. 5), Connecticut (Jan. 8), St. John's (Jan. 23), Rutgers (Feb. 12) and Cincinnati (Feb. 26).

Part of the appeal of Notre Dame women's basketball can be traced to the renovated Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, which has yet another new feature this season with the addition of a four-sided LED video scoreboard high above center court, as well as LED auxiliary scoreboards above all four court-level entrance ramps and at the scorer's table.

McGraw Is Simply Legendary
The announcement on July 10, 2010, may have made it official, but it really only confirmed what Notre Dame fans have known for a very long time -- head coach Muffet McGraw is a Hall of Famer.

McGraw, the 2001 consensus national coach of the year and winner of more than 600 games in her illustrious career, was one of six people -- and the lone coach -- named to the 2011 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Class, as announced in Uncasville, Conn., during the "WNBA vs. USA Basketball: The Stars at the Sun Game" that was televised live nationally on ESPN from Mohegan Sun Arena.

The others in McGraw's Hall of Fame class include former Olympic gold medalists Ruthie Bolton (Auburn) and Vicky Bullett (Maryland), as well as Val Ackerman, the first WNBA president (1996-2005) and first female president of USA Basketball (2005-08), and a pair of three-time All-America players from the pre-NCAA era, Pearl Moore (Frances Marion) and Lometa Odom (Wayland Baptist).

The '11 class offically was introduced at the 2010 State Farm Tip-Off Classic on Nov. 16 at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn., before the Connecticut-Baylor game. The group will be enshrined June 10-12, 2011, during the 13th annual Induction Weekend at the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn.

McGraw becomes the first Notre Dame selection for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The Fighting Irish skipper also is the third BIG EAST Conference coach chosen for the honor, joining Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer (2001) and Connecticut's Geno Auriemma (2006) in that elite company. First-year Seton Hall head coach Anne Donovan also was a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inaugural class in 1999, going in primarily for her accomplishments as a player at Old Dominion.

McGraw also will be the ninth active college head coach to enter the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on the basis of her success on the sidelines. Besides Stringer and Auriemma, the others on this list are: Pat Summitt (1999 - Tennessee), Van Chancellor (2001 - LSU), Tara VanDerveer (2002 - Stanford), Sylvia Hatchell (2004 - North Carolina), Andy Landers (2007 - Georgia) and Debbie Ryan (2008 - Virginia).

Oh Captain, My Captain
Senior forward Becca Bruszewski and senior guard Brittany Mallory are serving as Notre Dame's team captains for the 2010-11 season. Both players received the captain's honor for the first time in their respective careers following a preseason vote by their teammates.

Notre Dame Sets Pace For Pink Zone
Following last year's wildly-successful fundraising efforts for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone breast cancer initiative, Notre Dame reached even higher this season, as the Fighting Irish have raised a program-record $116,405 for the initiative, among the most by any Division I school in the country this year. That also lifts Notre Dame's combined Pink Zone fundraising total in the last three years to more than a quarter of a million dollars (approximately $260,000).

For more information, or to make a donation, please visit the Notre Dame Pink Zone web page at www.UND.com/pinkzone.

Next Game: NCAA Regional Final
Should Notre Dame defeat Oklahoma in Saturday's NCAA Dayton Regional semifinal game, the Fighting Irish would advance to the title contest in the Dayton Regional at 7 p.m. (ET) Monday at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio against either top-seeded Tennessee or No. 4 seed Ohio State.

Notre Dame has not faced UT since a 74-64 loss to the Lady Vols in the 2008 NCAA Oklahoma City Regional semifinals. The Fighting Irish last played OSU on Nov. 20, 2004, defeating the Buckeyes, 66-62 at Purcell Pavilion in the Preseason WNIT championship game.